THIS DAY IN HISTORY

Elvis Presley puts a down payment on Graceland

In the spring of 1957, Elvis Presley was completing his second Hollywood movie, Loving You, and his first movie soundtrack album. He had two studio albums and 48 singles already under his belt and two years of nearly nonstop live appearances behind him. If his life had taken a different path, the spring of 1957 might have seen Elvis Presley filling out law school applications or interviewing for his first job as college graduation approached. But the hardworking son of Gladys and Vernon Presley was already his family’s primary breadwinner in the spring of 1957, and already looking, at the tender age of 22, to purchase them a new home for the second time. He found that home on the outskirts of Memphis—a southern Colonial mansion on a 13.8-acre wooded estate. With a $1,000 cash deposit against a sale price of $102,500, Elvis Presley agreed to purchase the home called Graceland on March 19, 1957.

It’s a special enough thing for any young man to be able to buy a house for his family, but for a young man who was as devoted to his family as Elvis was, it must have been particularly special. Elvis had already bought one house for his parents on Audubon Avenue in East Memphis, but that residential neighborhood had become overrun with gawkers and worshipers as Elvis became a megastar. There was also the matter of the growing entourage of extended family and friends around Elvis driving the need for a larger home base. Officially, Graceland was where Elvis, his parents and his grandmother Minnie Mae lived, but unofficially, it was also the home/hotel/clubhouse for the entire “Memphis Mafia”—the ever-changing cast of childhood and newfound friends who surrounded and often drew salaries from Elvis throughout his post-stardom life.

ADVERTISEMENT

Thanks for watching!

ADVERTISEMENT

Thanks for watching!

ADVERTISEMENT

Thanks for watching!

Many girlfriends and one wife (the former Priscilla Beaulieu, who wed Elvis at age 21 in 1967 but moved in quietly several years earlier) also came and went at Graceland during its 20 years as Elvis’s base of operations. Today it is preserved precisely as Elvis left it when he passed away in the upstairs master bathroom in 1977. His daughter Lisa Marie inherited Graceland on Elvis’s death, and in the years since then, it has become one of the nation’s most popular tourist attractions—the second-most-visited house in America after the big white one on Pennsylvania Avenue.

FACT CHECK: We strive for accuracy and fairness. But if you see something that doesn't look right, contact us!

ALSO ON THIS DAY

On March 19, 1953, legendary filmmaker Cecil B. DeMille wins the only Academy Award of his career when The Greatest Show on Earth takes home an Oscar for Best Picture. The film, a big-budget extravaganza about circus life, starred Charlton Heston, Betty Hutton, and Cornel Wilde. ...read more

In an attempt to lift the state out of the hard times of the Great Depression, the Nevada state legislature votes to legalize gambling. Located in the Great Basin desert, few settlers chose to live in Nevada after the United States acquired the territory at the end of the Mexican ...read more

Eight Curtiss “Jenny” planes of the First Aero Squadron take off from Columbus, New Mexico, in the first combat air mission in U.S. history. The First Aero Squadron, organized in 1914 after the outbreak of World War I, was on a support mission for the 7,000 U.S. troops who ...read more

On this day in 2005, John DeLorean, an innovative auto industry executive and founder of the DeLorean Motor Company, dies at the age of 80 in New Jersey. In the early 1980s, the DeLorean Motor Company produced just one model, the DMC-12, a sleek sports car with gull-wing doors ...read more

On this day in 2003, the United States, along with coalition forces primarily from the United Kingdom, initiates war on Iraq. Just after explosions began to rock Baghdad, Iraq’s capital, U.S. President George W. Bush announced in a televised address, “At this hour, American and ...read more

On this day, the commander of the German Home Army, Gen. Friedrich Fromm, is shot by a firing squad for his part in the July plot to assassinate the Fuhrer. The fact that Fromm’s participation was half-hearted did not save him. By 1944, many high-ranking German officials had made ...read more

Sign up now to learn about This Day in History straight from your inbox.

The South Korean Assembly votes to send 20,000 additional troops to Vietnam to join the 21,000 Republic of Korea (ROK) forces already serving in the war zone. The South Korean contingent was part of the Free World Military Forces, an effort by President Lyndon B. Johnson to ...read more

The National Assembly grants “full power” to Premier Lon Nol, declares a state of emergency, and suspends four articles of the constitution, permitting arbitrary arrest and banning public assembly. Lon Nol and First Deputy Premier Prince Sisowath Sirik Matak had conducted a ...read more

On March 19, 1966, Texas Western College defeats the University of Kentucky in the NCAA men’s college basketball final at Cole Field House in College Park, Maryland. This marked the first time an all-black starting five had won the NCAA championship. The top-ranked University of ...read more

On this day in 2003, President George W. Bush addresses the nation via live television and announces that Operation Iraqi Freedom has begun. Bush authorized the mission to rid Iraq of tyrannical dictator Saddam Hussein and eliminate Hussein’s ability to develop weapons of mass ...read more

Charles Marion Russell, one of the greatest artists of the American West, is born on this day in St. Louis, Missouri. According to family lore, Charlie Russell displayed an aptitude for art from a young age, reportedly drawing pictures and modeling in wax when he was a small ...read more

French writer Honore de Balzac’s play Les Ressources de Quinola opens to an empty house thanks to a failed publicity stunt on this day in 1842. Hoping to create a buzz for the play, the writer circulated a rumor that tickets were sold out. Unfortunately, most of his fans stayed ...read more

On this night in 1953, for the first time, audiences are able to sit in their living rooms and watch as the movie world’s most prestigious honors, the Academy Awards, are given out at the RKO Pantages Theatre in Hollywood, California. Organized in May 1927, the Academy of Motion ...read more

On this day in 1971, an earthquake sets off a series of calamities—a landslide, flood and avalanche–that results in the destruction of the town of Chungar, Peru, and the death of 600 of its inhabitants. Chungar was a mining camp in the Andes Mountains, where workers and their ...read more

On this day in 1999, law enforcement officials discover the charred bodies of forty-two-year-old Carol Sund and sixteen-year-old Silvina Pelosso in the trunk of their burned-out rental car, a day after the vehicle was located in a remote area several hours from Yosemite National ...read more

On this day in 1985, at the Battle of Bentonville, North Carolina, Confederate General Joseph Johnston makes a desperate attempt to stop Union General William T. Sherman’s drive through the Carolinas in the Civil War’s last days; however, Johnston’s motleyforce cannot stop the ...read more

In a precursor to the establishment of a separate, Soviet-dominated East Germany, the People’s Council of the Soviet Zone of Occupation approves a new constitution. This action, together with the U.S. policy of pursuing an independent pathway in regards to West Germany, ...read more

On this day in 1734, Patriot politician Thomas McKean is born to Scots-Irish Presbyterian parents in Chester County, Pennsylvania. He will eventually serve as president of the state of Delaware, president of the U.S. Congress under the Articles of Confederation and chief justice ...read more